Mountain couple back in jail
Lindblads arrested on illegal arms charges
By ANGELICA MARTINEZ, Staff Writer
Robert and Samantha Shirley Lindblad, accused of being accessories to attempted murder, are back in jail after illegal explosives and firearms were found in their Big Bear City home, sheriff's deputies said Wednesday.
The couple he 69, she 59 had been free on $50,000 bail each since Aug. 29, after a Big Bear Superior Court judge reduced their bail from $280,000 each.
Christian Lindblad of Baldwin Lake, the couple's son who is in custody at the West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga on suspicion of attempted murder, torture and false imprisonment in the shooting of his then girlfriend, Tina Marie Stebbins, also faces new charges for allegedly possessing similar items in his home, said sheriff's Detective Thomas Hutchins.
The elder Lindblads had been arrested on accessory charges in connection with the shooting their son is accused of.
Tuesday, sheriff's deputies and detectives, who said they were acting on information they received, served a search warrant at the Lindblad homes.
As a condition for bail reduction, the elder Lindblads had agreed to several terms, including not possessing firearms and weapons.
Among the items found in the couple's home in the 46100 block of Serpentine Drive were 60 blasting caps, two practice grenades, several feet of fuse, two military explosive simulators, about 25 small fuse explosive devices, two sets of martial arts devices and black powder, Hutchins said.
The couple were booked back into the Big Bear Lake jail Tuesday night. Bail was set at $500,000 each, the detective said.
It was not known where the items came from.
In Christian Lindblad's Baldwin Lake home, several bombs and firearms, were seized, authorities said.
Included were a homemade sawed-off double-barrel shotgun, a .223-caliber assault rifle, 810 rounds of .223 ammunition loaded into 30-round magazines, six pipe bombs, about 50 cricket bombs, two smoke grenades, a fragmentation grenade, a homemade rocket launcher and nine homemade rockets, authorities said.
Christian Lindblad was arrested in late June. Deputies accuse him of shooting Stebbins in the right leg, arm and abdomen and keeping her in a garage without medical help for six days.
His parents were arrested and booked into jail in connection with the shooting weeks after deputies discovered Stebbins.
Deputies have said the elder Lindblads did not report the shooting for fear their son would be arrested.
Stebbins, who was admitted July 3 to Loma Linda University Medical Center with small hopes of survival, has since recuperated.
She was released from the hospital in late August. Stebbins later returned for skin-graft surgery to cover the wound in her abdomen, acquaintances said Wednesday.
In an exclusive interview with The Sun, Stebbins has said the young Lindblad and his parents stored weapons and explosive devices in the home and around their property.
In a jailhouse interview, Christian Lindblad said the shooting was accidental.